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Oh Ye of Little Faith

The Lion Dance Competition was amazing. But I am feeling deep regret at something that I did, especially after seeing a post of our performance by Paulo Texeira, because what actually happened is getting lost I am one of the few that know the full story.

We performed and there were many problems yes. But because we had small children the organizers did not take away points for time being under. And the judges were kind in their scoring, taking the age of the students into account.

Other teams did have points deducted due to time and one team was even disqualified for their own saftey because of dangerous jumps and tricks that were difficult to do. Watching that team get hurt, my students became afraid and did not do the flips that they usually do and so they probably think that they din't qualify because of something they did, but actually the sin and the betrayal was mine.

Not only were we part of the competition... but we qualified. And because I have had so many naysayers around me in the past and because of my wrong perspective, I conceded.

I thought, "Well the Nativity kids cannot come back the next day anyway." But I forgot about myself and my sons, and indeed the Worcester Youth Nian Dancers team that was disqualified. I could have used this miraculous divine intervention to combine our teams. We would have been guaranteed at least the 4th place plaque and a piece of paper with Nativity, WYND and Adam Kung Fu Dad would be hanging on the wall somewhere.

But more than that, hearing some of the older lion dancers from previous generations, I realized that I could have represented the past and the future. I wouldn't have been able to do all the tricks that were done by other teams with out practicin g. But Honestly, I could have done a number of them with the lion head from WYND because of the weight difference. But more important than that, my style of dancing (Which Noah showcased with two moves and no more than two moves but still elicited a huge response from the crowd, is a style that isn't done much. And the older generation would have felt represented in the competition, thinking, "That's how we used to do it."

God reached down and gave me a chance to get under the head during the competition to save the day as it were and I couldn't accept it and so I rejected the miracle that was happening right in front of me betraying my team, my sons, the ancestors, and myself.

Take this as a lesson! Whenever your dreams are fulfilled in a way that you think you don't deserve it... do not reject that opportunity or gift. There is a reason for everything.

Moving forward I will have to use this for positivity, but I also have to answer for my sins when I explain all this to my students.

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